Female empowerment, beauty at the core of new Honey's Beauty Bar

Everyone loves to look good, and when we look good, we feel good. New business owners Charisa Bower and Colleen Walsh, owners of House of Honey’s Beauty Bar and Lounge in Patchogue Village echo that philosophy.

Walsh said people come in for teeth whitening and facials to give them a pick-me-up and to make them feel good. The duo has always been obsessed with beauty and art and throughout their 15-year friendship, they knew they wanted to go into business together in the beauty industry.

Services and experiences
The beauty bar offers a wide variety of services including, facials, eyelashes, eyebrows, waxing, tooth gems, tooth whitening, and because the beauty industry is ever-changing, more services will be added as they go. Behind this great undertaking is a team of 19 professional employees divided into their respective services, four hair removal specialists, six lash technicians, and nine estheticians. In addition to all the professional services they offer, Bower and Walsh are out to provide an experience for their customers.

Their decoration is a large part of that—the art prints and neon signs as well as the murals that preside over all the rooms bring the space to life and allow it to be used as a photo-op area.

Honey, a term of endearment, is combined with the quiet ambiance of their section of East Main Street and generates an intimate and welcoming feeling for anyone who is looking to pamper themselves.

Female empowerment
Their mission statement: When a customer first walks into their beauty bar, there is a mural that takes up the front-facing wall in the storefront section, with a large painting of a woman made by local artist Natalia Piluk (nataliapiluk.wixsite.com/artist @_olejki on Instagram).

Bower and Walsh themselves embody female empowerment; they worked on their store every day leading up to opening, all while Bower, a nurse, attended university and worked shifts at the hospital. They also designed and customized their business and merchandise themselves to stay true to their vision of how they wanted the beauty bar to look.

Staying safe
Since their business involves proximity with another person, they have had to take necessary precautions to ensure_ the utmost safety for their customers, which involves “taking temperatures for everyone, hand sanitizer stations scattered throughout the house, and [keeping] a log of everyone coming through the house.”

With Charisa being a nurse, following CDC guidelines and protocols is important to them. Despite the difficulties around starting a business – any time let alone a global pandemic – Colleen and Charisa describe starting their beauty bar as a “blessing and a learning experience.”

In addition to the wide variety of services they currently offer, with the help of Charisa’s medical background, they want to offer I.V. hydration, Botox, and lip fillers in the future.

Charisa also has the goal of creating a medical scrub line. Wherever their business endeavors lead them, the “Head Honey’s” made it clear that their mission is to “make people feel comfortable and confident.”

To learn more about their business, visit @houseofhoneysli on Facebook and Instagram.